You are here

Smart Dildos Caught Spying On Owners

The manufacturer of a bluetooth-enabled “smart dildo” has been ordered to pay out $3.75 million to users after it was caught collecting “extremely intimate data” about the way individual owners used the sex toy. The class action against sex toy company Standard Innovation Corporation was brought in the federal court by two anonymous women last year, in relation to the We-Vibe 4 Plus, a product advertised as the “No. 1 couples vibrator.” The prime feature of the device allows users to adjust intensity and vibration patterns using a smartphone linked to the ‘We-Connect’ app, enabling couples to “play together even when [they’re] apart”. Internet capabilities of the We-Vibe product line allow devices to be controlled long distance, for example between two people in different locations – even on opposite sides of the globe. Individual We-Vibe devices retail for between $170 and $300. However in September last year it was revealed that highly intimate data from the device was being regularly sent back to the manufacturer when in use. The New York Times reports: To use the We-Vibe vibrator’s full range of features and customized vibrations, including text and chat features, users were required to download the We-Connect mobile app from the Apple Store [...]